Dr Stuart Connop

Biography

Specialist in biomimicry/ecomimicry in urban green infrastructure design. Having completed a PhD investigating the habitat requirements of UK Biodiversity Action Plan bumblebee species, Stuart has an active involvement in invertebrate ecology including habitat assessment, design, monitoring and management. His background includes biodiversity and ecosystem service monitoring and the associated data analysis, including the use of spatial analysis and ISIS invertebrate assemblage analysis to quantify habitat quality. Stuart is currently co-Work Package lead on the Greening Public and Private Urban Infrastructure research and innovation component of the EU FP7 project TURAS. Within TURAS Stuart has led and co-delivered research on UGI design and monitoring in partnership with numerous stakeholder including developing scoping programmes for UGI retrofit for social landlords and UGI-focused Local Authority Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems planning guidance. Stuart's research has a strong focus on impact and includes knowledge exchange with Natural England, the Environment Agency and numerous NGOs. Stuart is currently a steering advisor on Buglife's national Urban Buzz programme and also sat on the European Commission Working Group for Green Infrastructure. He has recently given presentations on nature-based solutions for the UK Horizon 2020 contact point and at conferences and knowledge exchange events in Brussels, Slovenia and Armenia. Stuart has also provided research and guidance to the European Commission's DG Research & Innovation.

Research Interest

Biodiversity and ecosystem service monitoring and the associated data analysis, including the use of spatial analysis and ISIS invertebrate assemblage analysis to quantify habitat quality